![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , September 21, 2004
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ATI Radeon X700XT Preview
ATI introduces their mainstream video card series based on flagship X800 technology and we take a look at what level of gaming experience the Radeon X700XT is delivering directly compared to NVIDIA's GeForce 6600GT.
ATI Radeon X700XT:
In the picture above we have the GeForce 6600GT (top) compared to the Radeon X700XT (bottom). Physically the Radeon X700XT is shorter than the GeForce 6600GT. Both cards are the exact same width and height. However, because the Radeon X700XT is using an all copper heatsink, it is much heavier than the GeForce 6600GT.
As you can see, ATI is using a new heatsink fan unit which is made of all copper and is enclosed so that heat will be ducted out away from the video card. We mentioned earlier about heat and noise. This video card gets hot, very hot. With this video card operating in normal conditions playing a game, we were not able to keep our finger on the heatsink of this video card for more than 5 seconds else we risked getting burned. Not only was the heatsink extremely hot, but the entire card itself became very warm and some of the components were very hot. You really want to make sure you have a well ventilated case with this card. The GeForce 6600GT runs much cooler.
As for noise, this fan is loud compared to other ATI fans we have heard. This fan does have varying fan speeds, so it runs at a slower speed when the VPU is cool enough and is hard to hear over a case fan. But when you start a game or 3D app requiring the VPU to heat up, the fan can spin up to at least 2 different modes that we have witnessed. At its fastest speed the fan is very loud and jumped up in volume above our CPU fan and above a case fan as well. Those looking for a silent solution will not find it with this heatsink fan combination, though we are happy that it does spin down in speed when the VPU is cool enough. The GeForce 6600GT is quieter.
On the back of this video card you will notice the space where more memory modules could go. This is for the X700Pro which uses 256MB of RAM, the X700XT uses 128MB.
We also noticed something else about this heatsink. As you can see in the pictures above the heatsink is hovering over the RAM modules, it is not coming into contact with them with any kind of thermal transfer material. Instead, the heatsink hovers over them potentially trapping hot air from the RAM. Considering how hot this entire video card gets, we wonder if the heatsink extended further over the RAM with some good thermal material being cooled by the heatsink would help. We did not experience any lock ups or heat related problems, however our video card is in an open environment on a desk. Inside a case things are going to get a little toastier.
As you can see on the label our video card is a Non Qualification Sample, but it does represent fully what you will see on the shelf. The VPU of the X700XT is known as RV410.
Test Setup:
ABIT AA8 (Intel 925X), Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4GHz downclocked to 3GHz (15x200), 2 X 512MB Corsair XMS2 5400C4Pro Dual Channel DDR2, Western Digital 74GB Raptor SATA/150, Windows XP Professional SP2 with DirectX 9.0c.
ATI Radeon X700XT – Operating at default clock speeds 475MHz/1.05GHz using WHQL Candidate Driver Version 8.06.
NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT – Operating at default clock speeds 500MHz/1GHz using ForceWare 65.76.
For our comparison today we will take the NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT and compare it with the ATI Radeon X700XT since they compare directly at the same price point.
We are using a PCI-Express Intel 925X platform with the ABIT AA8 and a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPU for testing. We have downclocked this CPU to 3GHz for these video cards. 2.8GHz is the slowest CPU sold in the socket 775 family. Our results here should very closely represent a 3.2GHz non-EE Pentium 4.
For the X700XT we are using WHQL Candidate driver version 8.06 along with a new CATALYST Control Center.
For the driver settings we left everything at default except to disable VSYNC. This means CATALYST A.I. was at the default “Standard” (Low) setting. If you look at the second driver screenshot above you can see where the option is to enable Geometry Instancing. The default configuration is for it to be disabled. Right now enabling it will do nothing because there aren’t any games using it yet. When patch 1.2 for FarCry is released it will have support for ATI’s Geometry Instancing which you will want to enable. In the third driver screenshot above you can see that this card does support OVERDRIVE.
We are using WHQL candidate ForceWare 65.76 provided by NVIDIA. With the ForceWare 65.76 driver there are some new filtering optimizations. We used the default settings for each. As you can see above, Trilinear Optimization was ON, Anisotropic Mip Filter Optimization was OFF, and Anisotropic Sample Optimization was ON. Please remember we feel optimizations in the true sense of the word are a good thing, and we will continue to use the default optimization settings in the drivers for both ATI and NVIDIA.
Please be aware we test our video cards a bit different from what is the norm. We concentrate on examining the real-world gameplay that each video card provides. Gameplay includes performance and image quality evaluation. We have two sections, “Highest Playable” and “Apples to Apples”. The Highest Playable section shows the best Image Quality delivered at a playable frame rate. Following the Highest Playable section we have a brief Apples to Apples performance section for those that find benefit of framerates with matching IQ. We use a high performance system, with a very fast CPU in order to remove CPU bottlenecking.
For easy navigation each game tested is on its own page which can be selected from the navigation menu at the bottom right of each page. You can also click straight to each section from here.